Murder In Boston: Roots, Rampage And Reckoning

[DanaK]

Quote

The HBO Original three-part documentary series MURDER IN BOSTON: ROOTS, RAMPAGE, AND RECKONING, produced and directed by Jason Hehir ("The Last Dance," HBO's "Andre The Giant" ), and produced in association with The Boston Globe, debuts MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, followed by episodes two and three airing subsequent Mondays at the same time. The documentary series will debut on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.

Synopsis: On October 23, 1989, Charles "Chuck" Stuart places a frantic 911 call reporting that he and his pregnant wife, Carol, a white couple, have been shot by a Black man in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood. The ensuing investigation proves to be a lightning rod for the city, igniting decades-old racial tensions and brutal targeting amidst a media firestorm.

Full press release http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2023/11/06/hbo-original-three-part-documentary-series-murder-in-boston-roots-rampage-and-reckoning-debuts-december-4-453513/20231106hbo01/

Edited November 7, 2023 by DanaK

[kathe5133]

I lived through these times in Boston.  This documentary does a good job in capturing the climate in Boston at the time of this murder.  I'm looking forward to the next episodes!

[CeeBeeGee]

On 12/10/2023 at 7:44 AM, kathe5133 said:

I lived through these times in Boston.  This documentary does a good job in capturing the climate in Boston at the time of this murder.  I'm looking forward to the next episodes!

It's a fantastic documentary. I've always thought American Crime Story should explore this horrific crime. There are so many angles to explore--obviously race and domestic violence but also class--Chuck was working class but extremely aspirational, Carol was middle class but also trending upward. In one of the (many) books I read about this case, there's an anecdote about Chuck wanting to decorate their Xmas tree with these incredibly tacky NFL decorations and Carol said something along the lines of "Chuck. That's so...Revere" (the working class area where he grew up). In another anecdote he worked out what their combined income was and said "My God--we're yuppies."

I hate to say this story is fascinating because I hate it when people get caught up in the "drama" of true crime and forget about the victims. But there is a reason I keep coming back to this story and re-reading books about it.

They made a TV movie about it called Good Night, Sweet Wife. For a quickie TV movie, it is surprisingly good. And interestingly, one of the people interviewed in today's episode, Michelle Caruso, is one of the main characters in the movie!

[IntrovertRed]

I vaguely remember hearing about this case. I’m still in the first episode, but I hope retired Detective Dunn gets the karma coming to him somehow, somewhere.  

[SunGirl16]

15 hours ago, IntrovertRed said:

I vaguely remember hearing about this case. I’m still in the first episode, but I hope retired Detective Dunn gets the karma coming to him somehow, somewhere.  

Since it's my first time posting I'm putting the paragraph below as spoiler information.  I hope it works.

Spoiler

Especially after you hear what he says in the 3rd episode.  I haven't seen it (since it's not out yet). But I read an article/review on the documentary

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by SunGirl16

[MissAlmond]

I remember this case and was suspicious from the beginning. Then again, I'm always suspicious when the weaker person is outright killed while the stronger one sustains injuries that are survivable. I wish the two police officers originally assigned the case but removed due to being skeptical had been interviewed.

Caes like these always has someone like Dunn who refuses to accept they were wrong. 

[Constantinople]

13 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

I wish the two police officers originally assigned the case but removed due to being skeptical had been interviewed.

They had both died.

[MissAlmond]

7 hours ago, Constantinople said:

They had both died.

Oh, I missed hearing that. Thank you.

[kathe5133]

One thing that always fascinated me was Chuck's family.  The brother went along with it and claims he didn't know murdering Carol was part of the plan.  But then she turns up murdered, the very same night he met Chuck and took her purse and jewelry and nothing?  Nothing?  Pall bearer at her funeral and says nothing?  Ok, he finally fessed up to his siblings, but did they go to the police?  No.  They discussed and then planned on having a sit down with their parents to tell them Chuck was "involved".  WTF?  I'm not sure if they ever went to the police or if the police went to them since the morons were talking on a BFD phone line that was recorded.  (I can't remember.)  What kind of animals did those two parents raise?  The brother that was involved turned up dead years later in a homeless shelter, so he didn't end well.  If I knew my sister, brother, or even random friend was involved in a murder the first call would be to the police.  It speaks a lot about the type of people they were.  

[Constantinople]

On 12/15/2023 at 9:56 AM, kathe5133 said:

One thing that always fascinated me was Chuck's family.  The brother went along with it and claims he didn't know murdering Carol was part of the plan.  But then she turns up murdered, the very same night he met Chuck and took her purse and jewelry and nothing?  Nothing?  Pall bearer at her funeral and says nothing?  Ok, he finally fessed up to his siblings, but did they go to the police?  No.  They discussed and then planned on having a sit down with their parents to tell them Chuck was "involved".  WTF?  I'm not sure if they ever went to the police or if the police went to them since the morons were talking on a BFD phone line that was recorded.  (I can't remember.)  What kind of animals did those two parents raise?  The brother that was involved turned up dead years later in a homeless shelter, so he didn't end well.  If I knew my sister, brother, or even random friend was involved in a murder the first call would be to the police.  It speaks a lot about the type of people they were.  

Chuck Stuart had 3 brothers, Matthew, Michael and Matt, and 2 sisters, Shelley and Neysa.

What follows are quotes from the Boston Globe series that was made in conjunction with the documentary and the podcast. I'm putting it in spoiler tags since I don't know if any of this will be mentioned in the upcoming episode on the 18th.

Spoiler

 

Quote

 

The next morning [after the shooting], Matthew Stuart called his ex-girlfriend [Janet]

Chuck killed Carol, Matthew said. Janet stopped the car.

Matthew went on to tell this version of the story to lots of people. He told it to Janet, he told it to his brother Michael...

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/investigations/2023/12/charles-stuart/chapter-6/

 

Note: The Globe never specified when Matthew told Michael, but in the Timeline put together by the Globe, they said "in the days ahead [after the shooting]", so not long after.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/investigations/2023/12/charles-stuart/timeline/

That probably only confirmed what Michael knew or should have suspected.

Quote

 

Here’s what Michael didn’t tell Sally [a Boston Globe reporter who interviewed some family members the day after the shooting] — that almost two months earlier, at the beginning of August, Chuck had shown up at Michael’s house and asked him to go for a ride.

Sure, Michael said, he later recounted in front of a grand jury. What’s up?

They walked outside to Chuck’s van. Well, Chuck told him. I’m planning something.

Chuck talked in circles and didn’t come right out and say it. But what Chuck was implying was clear:

He wanted Michael to help him kill Carol.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/investigations/2023/12/charles-stuart/chapter-6/

 

But Mark, Shelley and Neysa didn't know until January.
 

Quote

 

...on Jan. 1, 1990, Michael called Mark Stuart, the only brother who didn’t yet know what had happened, and told him everything. Mark was aghast. After that, events moved fast.

Mark told their sister, Shelley, the next day [January 2nd], and the two of them together told Matthew that he had waited long enough to come forward. He had to go to the police now, or they would do it themselves. To ensure that it happened, they organized a meeting with Chuck’s own attorney and made Matthew tell him what he knew.

By the evening of Jan. 3, the Stuart siblings told their parents and another sibling, Neysa. And late that night, Matthew took a ride with the attorney whom Janet’s parents had contacted down to the Suffolk district attorney’s office in Boston. He rode the elevator up to the sixth floor, and sat down in a room with lead prosecutor Francis O’Meara, the head of the Boston Police Department’s homicide unit, and Detective Peter O’Malley.

The head of homicide, Lieutenant Detective Edward McNelley, hit “record” on a cassette player and turned to Matthew.

“Do you have a story you’d like to tell us, Matt?” he asked.

“Yes,” Matthew said.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/investigations/2023/12/charles-stuart/chapter-6/

 

Chuck Stuart jumped off the Tobin the morning of the 4th.

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by Constantinople

[CeeBeeGee]

I read a review (maybe in Slate?) of this series and it said something like "instead of focusing on the bland, unimpressive Chuck and his marriage, it focuses on the racial fallout." This jibed with my bewilderment at how much the press (and everyone, except of course the Black community) were NOT questioning his story. The only thing that gives him any credibility is how badly he was wounded. Everything else makes him look guilty--where they were (not really on the way home from B&W Hospital), that his small, pregnant wife was killed from behind and he was shot from the side, the drama queen "I'm blacking out" nonsense, his creepy affect at the hospital which is why the first two detectives were immediately suspicious. Michelle Caruso's analysis of the details was terrifically intuitive--she points out that in the photo of the two of them in the front seat, Carol was completely relaxed when she was shot, she didn't see it coming. And I loved her pointing out "who says they're blacking out?" She would've been a great detective herself.

And another reason for my bewilderment--how many people did he tell or hint to to that he was going to kill someone? What a moron. Of course the story was going to get out. Not exactly a genius. (Even if he did "attend Brown on a football scholarship." Snort. Someone as smart as Carol had to have known that was a lie.)

I'm also wondering why that first night the police didn't swab his hands for gunshot residue. (Did they do that back then? Maybe that's more recent technology.) After shooting himself, he would've been in too much pain to do it, I think.

Edited December 20, 2023 by CeeBeeGee
typo

[kathe5133]

7 hours ago, Constantinople said:

Chuck Stuart had 3 brothers, Matthew, Michael and Matt, and 2 sisters, Shelley and Neysa.

What follows are quotes from the Boston Globe series that was made in conjunction with the documentary and the podcast. I'm putting it in spoiler tags since I don't know if any of this will be mentioned in the upcoming episode on the 18th.

  Reveal spoiler

 

 

Note: The Globe never specified when Matthew told Michael, but in the Timeline put together by the Globe, they said "in the days ahead [after the shooting]", so not long after.

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/investigations/2023/12/charles-stuart/timeline/

That probably only confirmed what Michael knew or should have suspected.

 

But Mark, Shelley and Neysa didn't know until January.
 

 

Chuck Stuart jumped off the Tobin the morning of the 4th.

Thank you!  I'd not seen those articles.  Wow.  Just wow.  I guess my upbringing was different.  No one in my family would ever dream of approaching me to assist them with even insurance fraud let alone murder.  Telling me what they were planning would be akin to reporting it to the police.  Yeah, didn't seem like the police were interested, but the media sure would have been.  Her parents?  The parish church?  Hell, get on the PA system at a local grocery store.  Tell someone.  Keep telling someone.  I suppose one could say "it's different when you are actually living it, we didn't know what to do" or such, but... No!  You tell.  But, if you were raised that it only counts if you get caught, I guess the mindset is different.  Who knows the depth of Matthew's involvement, but it sounds like his demons pursued him to death.  I don't know where the other siblings are now, but hopefully they are not at peace.  And the others that were peripherally involved don't deserve any peace either.  I just can't wrap my head around the amount of folks who knew, but said/did nothing.  I don't think I know anyone like that and the fact that I don't allows me to feel that most people are basically good.  Most people.  There's a handful on the North Shore of Boston who I'm truly glad I'll never know!

 

[oohboo]

On 12/11/2023 at 10:51 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

It's a fantastic documentary. I've always thought American Crime Story should explore this horrific crime. There are so many angles to explore--obviously race and domestic violence but also class--Chuck was working class but extremely aspirational, Carol was middle class but also trending upward. In one of the (many) books I read about this case, there's an anecdote about Chuck wanting to decorate their Xmas tree with these incredibly tacky NFL decorations and Carol said something along the lines of "Chuck. That's so...Revere" (the working class area where he grew up). In another anecdote he worked out what their combined income was and said "My God--we're yuppies."

I hate to say this story is fascinating because I hate it when people get caught up in the "drama" of true crime and forget about the victims. But there is a reason I keep coming back to this story and re-reading books about it.

They made a TV movie about it called Good Night, Sweet Wife. For a quickie TV movie, it is surprisingly good. And interestingly, one of the people interviewed in today's episode, Michelle Caruso, is one of the main characters in the movie!

Do you have any book recommendations about this case? Thank you! 

[CeeBeeGee]

15 minutes ago, oohboo said:

Do you have any book recommendations about this case? Thank you! 

Murder in Boston by Ken Englade, and Deadly Greed by Joe Sharkey are the two I remember. (It's been a few years.) I believe the latter goes into incredibly thorough detail about the Stuart, DeMaiti and Bennett family backgrounds.

[MissAlmond]

That Detective Dunn was a piece of work.  He was 100% sure of the who, what, why, and how of Carol DiMaiti Stuart's murder when William Bennett was the Boston police main suspect. But when evidence, a confession from the brother, and friends of Charles Stuart admitting they knew Stuart was looking for a hitman, suddenly Dunn is all "Will we ever know who killed this poor woman?"

Don't get me started on Dunn’s assertion Boston doesn't exist because it's not the Boston he grew up in. The Hallelujah!  following that ridiculous comment was perfect.

Edited December 20, 2023 by MissAlmond

[Guest]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:27 AM, MissAlmond said:

Don't get me started on Dunn’s assertion Boston doesn't exist because it's not the Boston he grew up in. 

I love when racists like Dunn tell on themselves. 

 

[MissAlmond]

On 12/19/2023 at 7:32 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

Murder in Boston by Ken Englade, and Deadly Greed by Joe Sharkey are the two I remember. (It's been a few years.) I believe the latter goes into incredibly thorough detail about the Stuart, DeMaiti and Bennett family backgrounds.

There's also a podcast called Murder in Boston that's a supplement to the documentary.

On December 20, 2023 the current mayor of Boston issued a formal apology to the wrongly accused men and their families as well as the Black community of Boston as a whole. Something Carol DiMaiti Stuart's family - who lost a daughter and sister, grandson and nephew, and were nowhere at fault - did years ago. 

Edited December 23, 2023 by MissAlmond

[oohboo]

On 12/19/2023 at 7:02 PM, oohboo said:

Do you have any book recommendations about this case? Thank you! 

 

On 12/19/2023 at 7:32 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

Murder in Boston by Ken Englade, and Deadly Greed by Joe Sharkey are the two I remember. (It's been a few years.) I believe the latter goes into incredibly thorough detail about the Stuart, DeMaiti and Bennett family backgrounds.

Thank you! 

[EtheltoTillie]

I thought this was a very well done documentary, except for the last episode.  It was shorter than the others and had almost no visuals.  Just like listening to a podcast. 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[SnarkAttack]

So what did Charles do -stop the car, saying he had to get something out of the backseat, and then pulls out a gun and shoots her from the backseat?

He was acting like he didn't know where he was in order for more time to go by before the police came so that she would die and not be able to tell them no one jumped into the car?  He probably didn't think she'd survive even the short time she did.

Kind of hard to shoot yourself and not do potentially serious injury to an organ.  Guess he was willing to take the chance.

[CeeBeeGee]

8 hours ago, SnarkAttack said:

Kind of hard to shoot yourself and not do potentially serious injury to an organ.  Guess he was willing to take the chance.

Actually it's been done before--Jeffrey MacDonald (although he used an icepick) and Diane Downs both stabbed/shot themselves very carefully to avoid major injury. He icepicked himself between the ribs--once (whereas his wife and children were bludgeoned to death) and Downs shot herself in the left forearm (whereas of her three children, shot while sitting in the darkness of the back seat, one was killed, one was paralyzed and one suffered a stroke).

The problem with shooting yourself "safely" is, then it's immediately apparent to the police that the whole thing is staged. Chuck's extensive injuries were the only reason the police bought his story (that, and of course racism) because Chuck was apparently acting very strangely at the hospital. The staff all figured he'd done it.

According to Deadly Greed, Chuck had intended to shoot himself in the foot--which, if true, means he was even stupider than I thought. Sure, dude. The tiny pregnant woman gets blown away and the big beefy dude at the wheel gets shot in the foot. Yeah. That's plausible. *eye roll*

[MissAlmond]

18 hours ago, CeeBeeGee said:

The problem with shooting yourself "safely" is, then it's immediately apparent to the police

The other problem is bullets can travel which turns a "safe" shooting (If one can call any shooting "safe") into something far more serious.

 

18 hours ago, CeeBeeGee said:

The staff all figured he'd done it.

True. But while they believed Charles Stuart played a part in the crime, some also thought someone else did shoot him. This has led to speculation Matthew Stuart downplayed his own involvement and was the actual shooter.  I doubt the full story will ever be known. Most of the people around during that time are now either dead or no longer wish to speak about what happened that night.  

[CeeBeeGee]

2 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

This has led to speculation Matthew Stuart downplayed his own involvement and was the actual shooter. 

If that were the case, why did he come forward? He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by saying anything. Nobody was looking at him until he spoke up.

[MissAlmond]

42 minutes ago, CeeBeeGee said:

If that were the case, why did he come forward? He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by saying anything. Nobody was looking at him until he spoke up.

I'm just repeating what was speculated on the podcast. But you're right - that's exactly the counter argument: Matthew had nothing to gain while the majority of the 33 others (that's the number of people said to have known beforehand what Charles Stuart was up to) remained silent. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by MissAlmond

[DanaK]

I just finished the first episode and it is pretty interesting so far. I’m old enough to remember when this happened though I don’t recall all the details. Boston did exactly what so many majority White cities do when an “attack” happens and the victim or victims claim a Black guy did it, that is, the police maraud through the Black neighborhoods and rough up the Black residents. It just shows how much animus the police had and still have towards Blacks